an artificial Eye or Brest So shall your Majesty and People hope as King Josiah and his People did that the Judgments threatned against this Land may be turned away as it was from his As it is proved in the following Lines that it was chiefly for corruptions in Faith and Worship that God brought his Judgments on his own People Now would it please your Majesty in your Civil Kingdom to suffer your Self to be so abused as to have no Servants to serve You in your Kingdom or at your Table but what the King of another Nation thinketh fit No sure How then shall the Lord Jesus the Prince of the Kings of the Earth suffer himself any longer to be so Abused as to have no Servants to serve Him in his Church of his own Appointment either in Name or Office as Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons but what the Pope or other Mortal Men think fit Neither would your Majesty accept of the Service of any Subject Noble or Ignoble that should proffer his Service to serve You in your Civil Affairs if he did not do the same as your Majesty had given him Command and not as he pleased How then shall the Lord Jesus accept nay he doth not accept of the Service of any Person of what Degree soever that shall in his Spiritual Kingdom or Church serve him never so zealously except he do that Work and Service to God as Christ in his Testament hath commanded him If it were not so the very Turks that boast how they are Worshippers of the Living God and do abhor Idols would go beyond many that bear the name of Christians who though they do zealously worship the Living Beal Ep. to image of both Churches God and concerning Christ allow him to be a great Prophet the Word of God the Spirit of God born of Mary the Virgin yet because they worship not God by the Appointment of the Lord Jesus in his Testament but according to the directions of Mahomet therefore are they and their services rejected of God So likewise the Papists boast how they worship God yet abhor not Idols but because they do it by direction of sundry Popes and not by Christ's Appointment they are rejected of God and their service But if a Turk or Papist should ask many Protestants By whose Appointments do you worship God If truly answered must say Partly by the directions of Christ for we have his Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and partly by the Appointments of sundry Popes and Bishops as after is shewed So that for these things among other Evils God is bringing his Judgments on your Kingdom Oh therefore that your Majesty together with your Honorable Council would seriously consider these things that the Wrath of the Lord may be turned away from us And lastly Seeing there is but one way to escape God's Judgments threatned let not a Heathen Prince as Christ told the Jews come in Judgment at the last Day against a Christian Prince viz. the King of Jonah 3. Nineveh who so soon as he heard the Judgment of God threatned against him and his People arose from his Throne and laid his Robes from him issued forth a Proclamation to his People to keep a true Fast to the Lord as he required that is to break off their Sins by Repentance in turning every one from his evil way and from the violence that was in their Hands who did so so that it is written God saw their Works and repented of the evil he threatned against them Thus having discharged the part of a true Protestant Subject presented to a Wise Protestant Prince not doubting but this Mite shall be accepted and protected by yonr Majesty in Christian love to the Truth for the Honour of God and comfort of your Soul and the joy and comfort of your Protestant Subjects So that your Majesty with the Godly Kings of Judah doing the Will of God herein may have many Years Acts 13. 36. Rev. 21. 24. on Earth a prosperous Reign and having brought your Honour and Glory to the glorious State of Christ's Kingdom in his Church whereby She may enjoy all her Rights and Priviledges you may undoubtedly receive with Christ a Crown of Glory eternally in the Heavens which is and shall be the Prayer of your most humble Subject THO. WALL A Word of Advice to all true Protestants AS it is the duty of every true Christian not to hide his Talant in the * Luke 19. with Mark 25. 25. Earth but put it on a Candlestick that all may be benefited by the same I therefore judg if ever there were a time to speak it is now when the Protestant Religion lieth at stake to be utterly Ruined and the Professors thereof Murdered by the Blood-thirsty Papists the Spiritual Assyrians the Rod of God's Anger †Isa 10. 5. against his own People So that as Affliction doth not come out of the ‖ Job 5. 6. Dust nor Trouble spring out of the Ground for as saith the Scripture Is there any Evil * Amos 3. 6. in the City to wit of Punishment and I have not done it saith the Lord And when the Lord giveth Quietness who can make †Job 34. 29. Trouble and when he hideth his Face who can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or a Man only Therefore I have thought it the most profitable way to shew what I have gathered out of holy Scripture was the cause in Ages past that the Lord brought Judgments on his own People and to apply the same to our present Condition Which if the Lord help us truly to mind the same as Christians ought to do it may be a means to obtain Mercy at the Hand of the Lord to turn away his Judgments Let us take a view of these things from the first State of old Secondly When God had graciously restored Adam by his Grace in Christ promised and given him Ordinances as Figures of Christ to come to perform in the Lord 's holy order of Worship which in the days of his Son Enos his Children had greatly departed from corrupted their Way meaning their ‖ Gen. 6. 12. with Acts 18. 25. and 22. 4. Faith and Religion as also their making Marriages with Cain's Posterity called the Daughters of Men which was not lawful for the Members of the Church called the Sons of God to do and though God called them to Repentance by Noah's Preaching and warned them by his building the Ark of the Judgment intended by the Flood yet they persisted in their evil Course untill the Flood destroyed them all And how like to this is the state of Luke-warm Protestants now So that Christ likened the last Days we are fallen in to the Days of * Luke 17. 26. Noah for Sin and Wickedness by departing from the true Faith and by corruption in Worship and Members of Churches now making Marriages with those they cannot in Conscience
to ‖ 2 Cor. 6. 17. Isa 52. 11. Rev. 18. 4. touch none of their unclean things as God's Word commanded but sat down under a part of the Romish Ministry and Service with many other Devices For it was neither Christ nor his Apostles that appointed Priests Apparel as long Gowns Tippits four horned Caps but as * See Hen. Ainsw Counterpoyson pag. 234 235. proved out of sundry Authors Writers say did Pope Zachary nor white Linnen Surplices to wear at Service-time as did Pope Silvester nor ringing of Bells to call the People to hear Service as did Pope Sabiniam and to make up the Musick Pope Vitalian brought in the Organs and if these or other Popes had brought in to the Worship under the Gospel the 120 Trumpets †2 Chron. 5. 12. and other Instruments of Musick used in the Ceremonial Worship under the Law as well as Priests Garments would it not have bin as lawful to have used them Yea but Protestants should not be unmindful how that Christ by his Death abolished all the Ceremonial Figurative Ordinances ‖ Ephes 2. 15. out of his Worship as also the Instruments of Musick and hath made or appointed * Rev. 21. 5. all things new in Worship a new Ministry new Ordinances new Maintenance new time and order for Gospel-Worship So was Christ faithful in his own House or Church as a Son †Heb. 3. 5 6. as was Moses being but a Servant So that whosoever professeth to bear the Name of a Protestant or true Christian may remember what is written to them A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall ye hear ‖ Acts 3. 22 23. in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And every Soul that will not hear that Prophet to wit Christ Jesus shall be destroyed from among the People And to conclude with these Protestants under the performance in Worship of so many Popish Devices let us hear what some of the Martyrs have sealed with their Bloods whose Tombs they garnish with their approving their Sufferings as true Martyrs of Jesus John Wickliff * Acts and Monum Edit 5. pag. 114. saith That the Arch-Bishops Bishops Deacons Dians be the Disciples of Antichrist William Swenderby †Ibid. pag. 431. saith That the Pope Cardinals Bishops Prelates making Laws contrary to Christ's Living and his Laws or any other ground put in Ruling the Church of Christ but by Christ and his Laws is very Antichrist Adversaries to Christ and his Apostles Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham saith ‖ Ibid. pag. 518. The Priests Prelates and Monks are the very Body of the great Antichrist and that the Possessions and Lordships of the Clergie are the Venom of Judas shed into the Church John Claidon burnt in Smithfield * Ibid. pag. 588. professed That the Arch-Bishops Lord-Bishops Arch-Deacons Deans Parsons Vicars and the rest of that sort are the Disciples of Antichrist the very Antichrist themselves Now though these Men be dead yet with Abel they †Heb. 11. 4. speak and their Blood with all the Martyrs that have Suffered for the Testimony of Jesus crieth for * Luke 18. 7 8. Rev. 6. 9 10. Vengeance against all that uphold that Popish Prelacy Therefore as one chief Reason among others that Jerusalem was destroyed was for the Sins of her Prophets and Iniquities of her †Lam. 4. 13. Priests that have shed the Blood of the Just in the midst of her Therefore O England by this be warned who they are that hasten thy Destruction Now we have seen what a lame Reformation was here made by many thousand Protestants when they came out of Spiritual Egypt for so the Romish Church is called Rev. 11. 8. having utterly forgot or else for fear regarded not the Word of the Lord to God's People of Old when they came out of Temporal Egypt After the doings †Lev. 18. 2 3. with Deut. 12. 30 31 32. of the Land of Egypt shall ye not do as is foreshewed and written for our ‖ Rom. 15. 4. Learning So that instead of being fully separated to touch no unclean thing yet a part of the Romish Egyptian Ministry of Lordly Prelates was imbraced and the Service aforesaid by Law of oversight established so that there was another false Ecclesiastical State neither Spiritual nor Civil set up to the great dishonour of Christ's Spiritual State and the Civil State or Government in the Nation And hereupon saith John I beheld another Beast * Rev. 13. 11. coming out of the Earth therefore not from Heaven having two Horns like a Lamb as if he were the only Vican of Christ as the Pope pretends on Earth And who more than they against the Pope until as aforesaid the Civil Power had established them by Law And thereby Life was given to the very Image of the Pope the first Beast who because they were so near a-kin as a Child is to the Father begotten after his own Image or likeness which was not only so in its like false Ecclesiastical State but also in Mind and Quality and therefore this second Beast is said by the Spirit of God not only to speak like a Dragon but to * Rev. 12. exercise all the power of the first Beast before him causing the Earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first Beast by retaining a Ministry and Service and other things in Worship of his devising very little refined but still of the same nature So that no Man might Buy nor Sell save those that had the Mark of the Beast in their Fore-head or Hands that is yield professed Obedience to his Commands in Worship to God by Law established whether they had Faith or no. Now the Lord in his Mercy towards this Nation that was scarce come half out of Babylon sent others of his Servants under the name of another †Rev. 14. 8. Angel declaring to all Protestants both Prince and People that Babylon is fallen and for more certainty again saying It is fallen That so they might come fully out from all her devices in Worship and so might no longer ‖ Rev. 18. 4. partake of her Sins lest they receive of her Plagues But so soon as this false Ecclesiastical State or * Rev. 13. second Beast perceiving with †Acts 19. 27. Demetrius that if Christ's true Ministry and Government as it was in the Primitive Days of ‖ Ephes 4. 11. Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons were imbraced their gain of Shrine-making or keeping People in Ignorance what the true Ministry Government and holy Order of Christ's Kingdom of Worship is would be lost and their Princely Revenues by the King as their Elder Brethren Lord-Abbots Cardinals c. by former Kings be converted to Charitable Uses and they if they had any Grace must by laborious Preaching live of the free * 1 Cor. 9. 7
of all yet none can believe and obey but the Elect whom God giveth †2 Tim. 2. 25. Repentance to and to them only the Word is the savour of Life unto them that are saved by Faith in Christ Jesus Yet the Preacher knowing not who are the Elect doth apply the Word as generally calling all Persons to believe and obey in his Message As saith the Lord to Paul when he sent him to Corinth I have much People in this City So Act. 18. 10. John 10. 20. not all for they could not all believe because they were not all Christ's Sheep as it is written All Men have not Faith 2 Thess 3. 2. For these and the like errors in Faith and corruption in Worship which were too tedious here to refute about the state of Infant-Baptism and the Seventh-day Sabbath of the gross mistake in them that deny the one and keep the other largely handled by me not long since printed in a Book intituled Ancient Truth Revived Wherein is also in 22 Articles every true Protestant's Faith inserted the State of a true Church and how every Ordinance and by whom and in what Order they were performed in the Primitive Churches containing six Sheets of Paper unto which I refer the Reader is one cause why God hath not before this destroyed the false Ecclesiastical power of the Romish Babylon because as the Sins of God's People of old were the cause why old Babylon was not sooner destroyed even so is it See and read Jer. 25. now That as then God did first give his own People a Cup to drink and then Shishack did drink after them So Judgment must first begin at the House * 1 Pet. 4. 17. of God unless there be a speedy Repentance Else surely the time is come as that Servant of God Mr. Beal hath noted on Rev. 20. in his Book called The Image of both Churches That when the 1000 Years of the Beast's Raign was expired Satan the common Adversary of Man shall be loosed out of his dark Prison and set at large by the sufferance of God Mans wickedness deserving no other strongly deluding the Unbelievers for their unbelief-sake to deceive the Universal People of the World through the operation of Errors He shall cause them to give credance to Lyes that they may be damned for refusing the Truth So that the abomination of Desolation shall be set up in the holy Place meaning in the Heart where Christ by faith should dwell to the utter destruction of Faith Which People of him thus deluded is called in a mystery Gog and Magog that is as much as to say Covered and Off-covered For both the grand Captains of them depending doth these two words comprehend the one covering the Devil with many false Religions meaning Loe here is Christ and loe there is Christ the other in his sort following the same wicked consent these two Tyrants the Romish Pope and Mahomet with the whole generation of like Spirits with them mark that have gathered themselves together against God and his Christ to destroy the whole face of Christianity Now the woful experience of the beginning of these things is seen among us so that our Condition looketh too like the state of the Jews When Titus Vespasian the Roman Emperor came and besieged Jerusalem the Jews by reason of their many Errors were divided into sundry * Mark 12. 13 18. Sects and their dividing in Faith divided them in Heart that they destroyed one another So the words of Christ were fulfilled on them that despised his Counsel as it is written Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation Mat. 12. 25. How then doth it behove all Protestants to be by Christ's Words warned with speed to examine whether they be in the Faith of God's Elect * Tit. 1. 1. Heb. 11. and worship God by Christ's †Rev. 14. directions only that there be no dividing in Judgment and so not in Heart considering what * In his Book called the Card and Compass of Life presented to Prince Charles the first one hath noted That the Jews affirm the first Blood split in the World was by reason of the differences in Judgment among Brethren for so all that bear the name of Protestants ought to be in these words Cain was so possessed with Covetousness that he believed there was no Life after this But Abel believed there was after this Life a reward for the Good and punishment for the VVicked in which Contention Cain slew Abel So that Cain was of the Wicked one For to Persecute Imprison or kill any one for Conscience sake is a work †1 John 3. 12. Rev. 2. 10. of the Devil and a Wo is pronounced against them As it is written Wo to them that follow the way of * Jude ver 11. Cain they shall perish So that Protestants may be ashamed to own that evil Spirit to force Men to believe when it is written That it is God shall †Gen. 9. 27. perswade Japhat to dwell in the Tents of Shem. Therefore to force Men to believe or practise in things Divine before God giveth them Faith is but to make a Church of Hypocrites whose Sacrifice is * Prov. 15. 8. Abomination to the Lord as their Father Cain's was Now if any Protestant should be offended like * Amos chap 7. Amaziah the Priest of Bethel with this Christian Warning-piece as he was with the Prophet Amos's Warning to King Jeroboam and his People and say The Land cannot bear these words against the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God charge me as Amaziah did Amos the Prophet with Conspiracy against the King when but for declaring the only means then from the immediate Mouth of the Lord to preserve the King and the Nation as this is from the mediate written Word of God to preserve our King and the Nations from the Judgments threatned I say if we like them will regard no Christan Counsel all Scripture being written for our Admonition then in all likelihood the Judgments threatned on them will fall upon us that God will darken * Amos chap. 8. the Earth in a clear day by sending a Famine in the Land not of Bread nor thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord. For by reason of so many false Teachers in Judah their Silver became †Isa 1 22. dross their Wine was mixt with Water and they were fed with * Jer. 23. 28. Chaff instead of Wheat As is now seen by woful experience whilst God's Word is not truly Taught but corrupted with Errors under the colour of Christianity with Lo here is Christ and lo there as they said of old The Temple of the ‖ Jer. 7. 4. Lord the Temple of the Lord are these Nevertheless they were told Thy Prophets †Lam. 2. 14. have seen vain and foolish things for thee for they have not
all his good Subjects in whom is the least sence and fear of the Judgments of God for the Sins aforesaid or any other ready to come on this Nation that they would be pleased to remember that Word the Lord sent to Judah * Jer. 18. 7 8 9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their Evil I will repent of the Evil that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my Voice then I will repent of the Good wherewith I said I would benefit them Therefore if all Degrees both noble and ignoble do believe that it is not only for the Sins of some few in the Nation as Christ told the Jews of the Galileans whose Blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices Luke 13. 1 2 3. Suppose ye saith Christ that these Galileans were Sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered these things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish but for the general Sins of all some in one thing and some in another as afore noted So that according to the Evil will the Punishment be as is shewed by the Prophet Amos in the first and second Chapters The Irreligious are punished for their Cruelty to the Lord's People and the Religious People both Judah and Israel were punished because they had despised the Law of the Lord and kept not his Commandments which they * Exod. 19 8. Jer. 7. 23 24. promised to obey Seeing then the Sin of Leprosy is spread over all Degrees either in Corruption in Faith and Disorder in Worship or Oppression among Men that almost all are shut up as in a †2 Kin. 15. 5. severed House as unclean because by their Sins the Lord's Camp or Dwelling is ‖ Numb 5. 2 3. defiled Therefore dear Protestants under what other Title soever by Men called Christ Jesus the great High-Priest is * Levit 13. Heb. 4. 13. looking on you Therefore I shall close up all to you with the Observation of that worthy Servant of the Lord Henry Ainsworth on Levit. 13. 15. who hath noted there That it is one of the remarkable things in the Law That quick or sound Flesh in the Sore should be judged Leprosy and the Man pronounced unclean whereas if the Leprosy cover all his Flâ—sh he was pronounced clean And hereby the Holy Ghost seems to teach that if we would * 1 Cor. 11. 31. 1 Joh. 1. 7. judg our selves we should not be judged of the Lord 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Vnrighteousness But if any quick or sound Flesh that is any Gal. 2. 16. Eph. 2. 5. Rom. 11 6. Gal. 5. 4. part of Health or Life be pretended in our sinful Nature or any whit of Righteousness by Works of the Law by which no Flesh can be justified then God pronounceth us unclean for we cannot be justified but by the Faith of Jesus Therefore with David that we may find Mercy with the Lord we must acknowledg there is no soundness in our Flesh Psal 38. 4 8. Until this be done God will leave us as unclean 2 Kin. 15. 5. Numb 12. 14. shut up from Deliverance from our Enemies and Communion with himself until we be humbled for our Sins Lam. 1. 8. 3. 1 28. As it is written Your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and your Sins have hid his Face from you that he will not hear Isa 59. 2. And lastly If in this Warning-piece I have unadvisedly in zeal to God's Glory and good Will and true Affections I bear to my Prince and Countrymen let fall any words that do not become a Christian that is not warranted by God's Word let the Righteous †Psal 146. 5. smite me and it shall be taken as a kindness And let not any Protestant despise this plain way of discovering the Iniquities of these Times because it is not garnished with Eloquent Language nor yet think with themselves the Medicine is too sharp to work a Cure at this time but let all such before they judg or rashly censure it examine the Ingredients by that most Heavenly Herbal God's written Word and they shall find the whole Composition is gathered together by directions of God's Spirit in his Servants the Prophets and Apostles all written for our Learning gathered from the Tree of Life whose Fruit is for Souls food and the Leaves thereof for Healing of the Nations Now if the Lord prosper it is the thing desired herein and I have obtained my end who am one of the Lord 's unprofitable Servants to bring any Glory to his Name or Comfort to his People ERRATA Pag. 9. lin 2. Marg. for Mark read Mat. Pag. 19. lin 15. for 113 115. read 313 315. P. 28. l. last r. Also see Junius